1. Field of Invention
This invention pertains to backlighting translucent images. More particularly, this invention pertains to apparatus and methods for integrating a lighting circuit on a glass substrate to provide backlight illumination of a transparent and/or translucent image.
2. Description of the Related Art
The use of fluorescent light to backlight or illuminate a color transparency is well known in the art. In a typical embodiment, fluorescent bulbs are placed within a box having a glass front panel to which a color transparency is secured. Typically, such an arrangement requires that the box containing the fluorescent bulbs be deep enough to prevent the bulbs from forming hotspots or brighter areas on the transparency.
Various patents have issued with respect to backlighting images. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,748,455, titled “Display Apparatus,” issued to Welton on Jul. 24, 1973, discloses a portable display apparatus for exhibiting at a trade show. The Welton device includes a light box having a removable translucent or transparent panel and folding doors or panels, which make the light box self-supporting. An improvement of the Welton device is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,602,448, titled “Lighted display panel system,” issued to Grove on Jul. 29, 1986. The Grove patent discloses a lighted display panel system that distributes fluorescent light through a lens over the lamps, thereby reducing the depth of the light box and avoiding hot spots.
As seen by the above identified patents, it is often quite useful to be able to place a light source on or very close to the surface of a glass substrate. Such applications include mounting lights in the vicinity of vanity mirrors for use in automobile visors. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,162,950, titled “Lighted Mirror Assembly for Motor Vehicle Visor,” and issued to Suman, et al., on Nov. 10, 1992, discloses an illuminated vanity mirror assembly with a resistor screen-printed on a polymeric film substrate glued to the back face of the mirror.
Various apparatus and methods for integrating electrical circuitry onto a substrate are known. Additionally, various techniques are known for making electrical connections to components mounted on the substrate. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,081,601, titled “Bonding Contact Members to Circuit Boards,” issued to Dinella, et al., on Mar. 28, 1978, discloses a conductive overlay solder-bonded over a contact finger top surface area and having a gold surface layer. U.S. Pat. No. 5,019,944, titled “Mounting Substrate and Its Production Method, and Printed Wiring Board Having Connector Function and Its Connection Method,” issued to Ishii, et al., on May 28, 1991, discloses using metal nodules and adhesive to make electrical contact and to mount components to a substrate.